BarnBoy, while it is not clear what your angle is with Watt Wagons (you seemed to have parachuted out of nowhere to be become a Watt Wagons sales rep/Pushkar defender), you clearly have lost all credibility. To suggest that delivery of a bike with inferior components is no big deal because the consumer can simply just go out and buy the promised premium component is preposterous. This is a big deal, yes, worthy of come foul language. As a Helios "founder", I'm still waiting on a bike I paid for over a year ago, Pushkar has not given us regular updates as he promised (and e-mails/forum posts often go unanswered), and now we have to worry about our bikes being shipped with the wrong (inferior) components. This is not good.
I appreciate your concerns and I want to add some context, in case this gets lost in translation somewhere.
We offer multiple levels of customizations. Brakes, paint, handlebars, shocks, drivetrain, tire sizes, rims, forks, lights etc etc As we build these, we have discovered that literally
every single bike we have put out is unique and super personalized.
It is also a little disappointing that no one talks of the no cost upgrades we HAVE provided!
1. We have discovered that the forks the manufacturer sent were Mattoc pro, and not mattoc - That is ~$99 upgrade we have provided and not charged for.
2. The saddle by default is the Fizink Terra Aidon X1 - we have not charged for those. That is $79-$99 upgrade we have provided and not charged for.
3. The seatpost (most builds now) is the Crank brothers Highline 7 - which is $99 upgrade we have not charged for.
4. The cost of the MT7e brakes to us is $200/brake - we are significantly subsidizing it for our customers. That is another $99-$159 in costs to us.
5. We receive requests to put tannus armour after the bike has been built (involves removing the tires, putting armor, redoing tires, re-testing and recalibrating brakes. This adds a couple of hours of build time.
6. We have upgraded brakes after they have been installed and tested. This literally is opening the entire build and routing it through the frame. This adds 3 hours of build time.
Infact I am confident that pretty much every customer is getting MUCH MUCH better components than they originally bought / paid for. It is exactly opposite of what you are claiming - in every single case. Literally, every single case.
Now, to be clear, in this case the "inferior" component is a shifter and derailleur. We are providing the right component as soon as it is available. This is not a "inferior component for life" deal. I appreciate the concerns, but I also want to ground them on the matter at hand.
Is it ideal for the rider? No. Absolutely not.
Are we fixing this? Yes.